Being Sick While Living Abroad Sucks

10:04 am I’ve been lying in my bed for a few hours now, only crawled out once to go use the bathroom. I feel like crap. While I was teaching I realized my voice started to sound like a man, then I started randomly coughing. I came home and took some Chinese medicine that’s been sitting near my bed. I was using the Google Translate app to try to figure out if I was taking the right stuff. When I first came to China I got sick almost every week so I have boxes and boxes of medicine that were bought for me sitting around but they’re all in Chinese so trying to remember which one does what is extremely challenging.

I tried to message a few people to see if they can order some breakfast for me but I didn’t receive any responses, I guess they’re still sleeping.

Last night “sweeter ting” sent me a message asking me how I was doing. I’ve been avoiding his messages for awhile because he started getting a bit too clingy. Marriage proposals over WeChat and professing love isn’t really my thing. I responded to him letting him know I wasn’t feeling well. He said he would come to see if I was okay and I told him he doesn’t need to come because I took some medicine so I would be alright.

He sent me a message not too long ago asking me how I was feeling. I hesitated to respond at first but then gave in when I realized I don’t really have anyone else to help me right now. I told him I was hungry and I don’t have the energy to get up and eat. He said he would buy me dumplings and bring them over.

This is the part that sucks about of living alone in a foreign country by yourself and not knowing how to read or speak the language. I feel like I’ve lost a part of my independence. If I was at home I could just order a meal with an app or call up my local Vietnamese restaurant and get them to deliver some Pho to my house or even ask my grandmother to rub me down with some Jamaican rum, gotta love the old school Jamaican remedies. Instead I’m lying in bed, waiting for a boy who is “in love” with me to bring over some dumplings. This is why I highly suggest that before you plan on living abroad, get to know the language to make things easier for you in the long run.

10:35 am “Sweeter ting” dropped off the dumplings and also brought me a case of water. He refuses to let me pay for it. I’m heading to work in a few hours, I hope I can regain enough energy to teach my three classes today.